Field Hockey Season Recap

Though this past year marked the eighth straight losing season for Harvard’s field hockey team, coach Tjerk van Herwaarden used his first year with the Crimson to institute a new system and change the program’s direction.

Van Herwaarden began his tenure as coach with a 1-0 win in Harvard’s season-opener against Holy Cross. The success would not continue however, as the Crimson only earned two more victories on the season to finish with a 3-13 record.

“We may not have had the year numerically that we would have liked,” co-captain midfielder Kim Goh said. “We obviously would have liked to have had a few more wins in there, but I think in terms of progress we are very satisfied with our improvement over the course of the season.”

Of Harvard’s 13 losses on the season, three came in overtime. In fact, the very next game after the Crimson’s success in the season opener was a 2-1 loss to Sacred Heart in double-overtime.

With six minutes left in the game at Jordan Field, Harvard held a 1-0 lead over the Pioneers. But the Crimson failed to hang onto the lead as Sacred Heart senior Lindsey Katsen was able to score and force overtime. Harvard did not record a shot on goal in the extra period before Pioneer freshman Liz Bergman was able to end the game off of a penalty corner.

The overtime loss in the second game of the season started a string of losses for the Crimson as players adjusted to van Herwaarden’s style of play.

“I thought transitioning with a new coach was difficult at first, but at the end of the year I can tell that we improved a lot,” freshman midfielder Madison Jung said. “The hardest thing this season was just adjusting to a new system. That kind of thing is always a process, and it just took us awhile to figure everything out.”

Harvard’s first Ivy League game against Yale on Sept. 15 also needed an overtime period to decide the victor. A goal late in the second half by Crimson sophomore forward Noel Painter tied the game, 1-1, and forced overtime.

But Bulldog senior Mary Beth Barham’s second goal of the game in the 82nd minute gave Yale the 2-1 win.

“Something we have struggled with in the past is maintaining our mental composure as the season wears on,” Goh said. “I think Coach [van Herwaarden] did a great job at teaching us how to keep focused even near the end of the season and helped us keep a competitive mindset.”

The late season composure showed for the Crimson as it picked up its only Ivy League win of the season Sept. 29 against Brown in Providence. Harvard defeated the Bears, 1-0, behind strong play from co-captain goalie Cynthia Tassopoulos, who recorded seven saves on the afternoon. The win at Brown was the fifth shutout in the senior’s collegiate career.

Tassopoulos finished her senior season with 106 saves through 14 games, giving her a total of 576 in her Harvard career. Tassopoulos is one of five seniors the Crimson will be losing to graduation. Forwards Emma Keller and Katelin Wahl and midfielders Goh and Molly Stansik will also be leaving.

The players were not the only ones having to adjust to a new culture during van Herwaarden’s first season. Van Herwaarden, coming from a national championship caliber program in Maryland, had to adjust to coaching at Harvard.

“[Coach van Herwaarden] is great,” Goh said. “He came from a program that had been really competitive so it has been a big change for him as well as us. He had to adapt to the fact that this was an Ivy League academic and athletic environment and we were learning how to take our competitiveness and expectations to a new level.”

In Goh, the Crimson will be losing an All-Ivy second team defender who has started all 67 possible games in her Harvard career.

While Harvard may be losing two defensive stalwarts in co-captains Goh and Tassopoulos, it will return its leading scorer in Painter. Painter and the rest of the returning Crimson squad will be joined by six incoming freshman as van Herwaarden tries to build upon his first season in Cambridge.

“I think his influence really showed in the amount of people going out and practicing on their own to get better and putting in extra time,” Goh said. “He really changed the level of expectation for the program.”

—Staff writer Ty Aderhold can be reached at aderhold@college.harvard.edu.